Acrimonious Behavior
by jaggedjacket
Summary: Shino knew that anyone he picked for this mission would hate him for all eternity, so he picked someone who already did. Me no own.


A/N: Since the Rundown is complete, I wanted to give my loverly fans a little treat for Thanksgiving to tide them over. You guys are the best! I had over a hundred people following that story. To show my gratitude for all of your many reviews and follows and favorites, here is some fluff. Enjoy.

(o)..^^^

He hardly heard her coming in from the crackling of the fire before him and the howling of the cold harsh wind outside the mouth of the cave.

"_I ran the whole way back from the village in that storm, and let me tell you this: I have found a new reason to hate you and this god-forsaken hell-hole_," was what he was expecting to come out of her mouth. Or something like it. But it didn't. He wasn't prepared for the dark silence that followed her entrance instead.

Tenten shivered viscerally and continuously as she removed the foreign pack from her shoulders and sat across from him to absorb the fire's warmth. The light of the flames illuminated her tanned features, causing them to become orange against the fire's bright flickers. Her suspiciously blue lips did not go unnoticed, and Shino continued his task at hand, which was preparing tea for her upon her return. He poured a cup silently as she gazed into the fire as if her thoughts were lost in its burning embers. She looked up with the sincerity of genuine gratitude as she took the cup with a half smile and a thank you that caused concern for her to work up into his system.

Their acrimonious relationship was half the reason that he had picked her for this mission. The mission to hell, also known as Snow in some parts of the world, would surely have severed any good standings he had stored up with his fellow shinobi over the years had he selected one of them to accompany him. While the actions of the mission did not put them in any direct danger, the harsh climate of Snow during its stormy season with its relentless winds and torrential downfalls of heavy accumulation was daunting enough to require the mission be manned with two people instead of just one for overall safety measures. With the protocol and the parameters of the simple mission, Shino knew that any person he took into the blizzardous country voluntarily would hate him for all eternity.

So he picked someone for the mission who already did.

It was, after all, the most logical choice.

Shino was almost certain he could almost pin-point the exact day that he and Tenten had bumped heads to the point of no return. It had been a particularly bad day for Shino, and running across the kunoichi had been a mistake from the beginning. The whole situation of just being at the wrong place at the wrong time and in a terribly foul mood was a perfect storm to start their discordant relationship. Once started, it just kept snowballing, and the more their teams were pushed together for training or any activity, the more the two refused to get along. Shino remembered that she had even tried to make amends and extend an olive branch on more than one occasion and he had flat out refused every time. It was easy to blame his pride on his part, but if he were honest with himself, it was more than that. It was an immaturity he was not ready to face, and somehow the thought of aggravating her to see how she would react, as juvenile as it seemed, pleased him immensely. As he was wholly ignored by other female counterparts her age, it was nice to receive some attention, even if it wasn't positive.

They happily reviled each other when they were one on one, pushed and shoved each other in turn with open hostility. Every encounter with each other was met with ill will and rancor. They shared a sacred code to themselves not to get their teammates too involved, just involved enough so that they knew of their acrimony. Heaven forbid anyone take it too far and have a teammate go after blood.

Their unfriendliness soon became common knowledge. Gai had, of course, tried to step in and see if they could perform a bonding exercise with each other, much to both of their annoyances, which nearly ended in a death match between the two.

Shino's jaw stilled creaked to this day from that fight.

He had no delusions about what their relationship was however. It was exactly what it appeared to be: complete and utter contempt for each other. He knew her animosity towards him to be completely genuine, and he could hardly fault her for it.

Especially now, since he dragged her out to the middle of frozen hell, and had made her run out to the nearest town to purchase supplies after a sudden avalanche had swallowed up one of their precious packs earlier that afternoon. His mind was equally divided between relishing the spiteful tongue lashing he would receive after she had to face the bitter winds alone, and quite fearful of the fact that she might die doing what he told her to do as leader of this mission. She was still the logical choice he reminded himself. She was a far better long distance runner than he, and while she was out, he would be better for securing their shelter for the night: finding a suitable cave that would allow them to keep a fire going all night. It was the most reasonable solution, he kept telling himself.

It didn't stop the pangs of guilt that he felt as she shivered and pulled long sips from her tea. The snowflakes had melted into her hair causing a glistening sheen in the flickering light. Reacting without thinking; he pulled off the blanket that he was swathed in and whipped it around her like a matador with a cape.

"You're soaked," he declared without much preamble, as he fingered her collar. "You need to change into dry clothes. Now." He hoped that sounded more like an order than concern. Hypothermia was not something to take lightly in these conditions.

Her teeth chattered a bit before she responded. "No can do, Boss." Boss. Chief. O Fearless Leader. All names that she used to call him instead of Shino. "We lost my pack in the avalanche. The town didn't have any clothes for purchase." At least the chatter was out of her jaw as she spoke her last sentence. "No doubt this was all part of your brilliant plan to kill me."

Normally, this kind of talk was to be expected, and honestly it was. It was just the way that she had said it, as if it were actually true, as if she _seriously_ thought that he was trying to kill her that stung Shino's heart. She had said it in such a calm, controlled way, and with a sad smile no less, that left Shino floundering for some solid evidence that pointed to the contrary.

Was he subconsciously trying to kill her? While the thought of it did cross his mind at times, especially when she irritated him…which was on a fairly consistent basis, an actual plan with deliberation to indefinitely end her life had not. Not _consciously_ of course.

"I am assuming the tea is poisoned since the storm didn't snuff me out like you had hoped."

Affronted in a way that left him speechless, Shino was momentarily stunned into silence. When he found his voice he changed the subject.

"I have some dry clothes that you can change into." Shino turned to retrieve his backpack from further inside the cave.

"We could have been friends, you know." Her small confession was almost swallowed up in the crackling of the fire, and he wasn't even sure that he was meant to hear it. Still staring at it as if it were holding unending answers, she didn't continue. The longing was there her voice instead of its usual contempt, and it pained Shino that he had brought her in the first place.

He slipped out a shirt, some warm pants, and thick socks. He kept his eyes on her face as the fire played its dark orange bursts over her visage. She was calm, contemplative, and solemn, but gradually warming back up. Part of him sighed in relief.

He carefully took the blanket off her shoulders and handed her the clothes in his other hand. Her last sentence replayed itself over and over again in his head. They could have been friends. Honestly and truly, they could have been.

He did not want her friendship, however.

"Why did you bring me here?" She had even bothered to look him in the goggles in order to ask the question. He was expecting as much.

"I brought you here because we are _not_ friends. Any friend of mine certainly would _not_ have been come journeys end. You were the logical choice to bring, as I have never sought out a friendly relationship with you and our relationship is already in poor standing with each other. I had the least to lose by choosing you."

"You do your fellow shinobi a disservice by believing they think so ill of you. I should think they consider it an honor to serve by your side. You are of high position within rank and a sole heir to a founding clan of Konoha. Anyone not attributing credit to being picked as your partner is not worthy of your company."

Shino held the blanket up as a curtain between them as she undressed. He processed her words slowly and chewed them over thoughtfully before he proceeded. It wasn't like her to dish out compliments to him.

"You seem to think me in good esteem with my peers. I know evidence to the contrary." Her silhouette marked a stark contrast from the orange glow of the fire. Tenten was a tall, slender female version of a shinobi. Her lithe body reminded him of what a dancer's should be, and the sudden tearing away of tape from flesh with a kunai quickly brought him out of his musings about Tenten's ideal female figure.

"What are you doing?" Shino's voice was mixed full of curiosity and anger for upsetting his less than pure thoughts about her.

"My bindings are wet. I won't be able to get warm if I don't cut them off now."

Shino wasn't quite sure if he could wrap his mind around such an archaic ritual that some kunoichi used to practice back in the day. Binding one's chest with tape instead of wearing a sports bra seemed a bit outdated to him. Certainly Tenten had enough common sense not to indulge in such an old fashioned method of restraint. The silhouette of the woman before him proved otherwise however, and Shino's eyes bulged once she was free and her shadow showed off her true form. Clearly tape was able to hide and constrict in ways that nature and a sports bra would not allow. Surely it could not be good for a female to limit herself so vulgarly in such a manner. It was not only terrible for lymphatic circulation, but _blood_ circulation as well. Tenten's true voluptuous form spilled out from its bindings briefly before being swallowed up whole again by one of Shino's standard regulation shirts. Tenten pulled the make-shift curtain down a bit forcefully once she had finished dressing.

"Oh yeah? What kind of evidence?" Shino's brain was momentarily stunned, needing a few moments to recall what they were talking about. The time that he should have spent reviewing their conversation was eaten up by him taking in her figure now loosely draped in his own clothes. Although the bulk of his shirt swallowed most of her curves, it was plain for Shino to see that she was quite the well endowed kunoichi. His eyes trailed her from the tips of her slender feet and the round of her calves to the peak of her collar bone and the smooth outline of her jaw. He was lucky that he wore goggle or he was certain he would have gotten slapped for his inappropriate behavior.

"Let's just concentrate on getting you warm." It was another stall tactic, he knew. He also didn't need to give her any more reasons to hate him. His comrades certainly had plenty by now, no doubt. Shino's reticence and irregular way of speaking was more than irritating to the peers in his profession. Add that with the creepy bugs and it made a recipe for an antisocial boy with little friends now grown up to be a man with just a few close friends. It was clear in most people's behavior to him that they preferred other's company to his own.

"Its crap and you know it." The fire had returned to her voice, now haughty with indignation. He loved getting her riled up. Now was no different. It was just odd that she was somehow on _his_ side. Normally she would tell him about his shortcomings in a heartbeat and not be afraid to follow it up with a good round house kick to his face just to drive her point home.

Shino rewrapped the blanket around her, sorry that her form now resembled a burrito instead of the dancer that he had admired moments ago. "Sorry to disappoint you, but human behavior does not lie. I am a less than desirable mission companion, for reasons you, no doubt, already know."

"Also crap. And don't give me this _bugs are creepy_ thing, either." Her saucy attitude was well noted and Shino sat next to her with his arm around her to help retain her body temperature. He gently stroked his palm up and down her arm to help warm her up. She didn't seem to mind, and even scooted closer to him as continued his ministrations.

"Why not? Bugs _are_ creepy." She scoffed again and wrapped the blanket tighter around herself with a shiver. Shino pressed her closer to him. "You yourself have complained so much on more than one occasion, you can hardly deny that fact."

"That's cuz I kept finding those salacious little minions in my sports bra you perv! Why do you think I bind nowadays with tape! If your damn bugs weren't so perverted I wouldn't have called them creepy when I found them crawling inside my bra every chance they got! Those bastards tickle like hell!"

"I assure you that it was not under my directive that they…became so familiar with you in such an inappropriate manner. Of that I have no control. Why? You are an enigma to them. While we vehemently fight with one another, they do not understand why I have not killed you if our animosity is so fierce. They keep tabs on you of their own will to protect me, and to alert me if you are coming and so forth. Despite my directives to do the contrary to leave you alone, they perceived that it was in my best interest to disobey orders. They are…curious about you."

"So they consider me a threat?" Her voice was incredulous but she was at least no longer shaking.

"Better to know which way the kunai is coming from."

At this she snorted a laugh with disbelief. "Right. Even still, you can't tell me that Shikamaru would have had a problem going on this mission with you. I would have thought that he would have been the ideal companion for you. Just as laconic, smart as you are… no muss, no fuss kind of thing. Instead you pick me, _knowing_ that we do not get along. That is just masochistic. I think Hinata's jukened you one too many times in the head."

"Do you think I made the wrong decision in choosing you for this mission?" Shino tried to ask as passively as possible.

"I wanted to bash your face in with my bare hands when l first heard the news that you picked me. Then I killed a few trees in training practice, ran a few laps around Konoha with Lee and finally calmed down. I separated myself from the situation and Gai forced me to see the positives in being chosen above anyone else. From my standpoint, this is an awesome career booster. One of the founding clan's heirs picks me over anyone else to go on a mission with him. It certainly pads my résumé. Not to mention that since it is common knowledge that we hate each other, it speaks volumes that you chose me even though everyone knows you hate me. It means that while we may not get along, I am still well qualified for the job. From that point of view, I was almost thrilled that you had picked me over anyone else. Then I realized that we would be doing a solo mission together and practically at each other's throats the entire time, and I wanted to smash your face in again. But then I got over it, packed my favorite sweater and thanked my lucky stars we weren't swimming the whole way there since the only thing I hate more than snow is water."

"My apologies for the loss of your favorite sweater."

"Yeah," she said leaning over to pick up her newly acquired gear. "But did you see how BA this backpack is?" She plopped it down in their laps and marveled at its ingenuity. "This thing has twice as many pockets as my last one, check out the slots on the sides for my vast array of weaponry. I will be quite the formidable opponent whilst carrying my weight in supplies on my back." That spark of mischief was back in her eyes. It was the same glimmer that had caused him to poke at her in the first place. She showed him her fiery side, the side of her that got worked up if he annoyed her.

It was a side that she didn't show to Neji, and he noticed carefully when he was around them. Sure, Neji would say things to cause her to get upset, even the _exact_ same things that he would say to her, but she never lost her temper with the Hyuga or did much more than half-ways roll her eyes at him before just blowing her teammate off. Shino, on the other hand, she would screech at until she turned purple, defending herself like her career or life depended on it. _Shino_ got under her skin in a way that no one else did. It was what he liked, what he wanted. He didn't want another dull, painfully quiet friendship with a girl. He wanted the tumultuous warpath that was an unpredictable Tenten. He wanted the screaming and fighting, and most of all, the attention. He didn't want to suffer in silence on the sidelines, being ignored.

And she _did not_ ignore him. She pushed and shoved back. She sought vengeance in some instances. She dished it out just as much as she took it. Shino was no longer heading up the side lines. He was engaged in a full out war with a kunoichi, and he had no intention of ever letting up. If he could make her blood boil, make her feel anything for him, then he wouldn't fade into non-existence. He wouldn't be just another Aburame in a coat. Not to her at least. To her, he would inspire creative insults and homicidal threats. It was enough to keep him alive so he wouldn't fade.

Lost in his own thoughts, he nearly missed it when she carefully put his arm back around her shoulder and snuggled closer to him as she examined the lining of the inside of the pack and counted out the rations for the next day.

It gave him the smallest hope that maybe, _just maybe_, she felt the same way about him. That if someone from a noble clan would recognize her as noteworthy, then maybe, _just maybe_, she wouldn't just be a nameless orphan who's name barely took up a fingernails width on the cenotaph in the graveyard someday. He'd like to think that she regarded him in the same way that he regarded her. That somehow they helped each other really live in a crazy world of shinobi that kept telling them not to feel emotion at all. They could feel raw, unadulterated agitation for each other without anyone giving them much grief since they were not on the same team. They could continue in their existence with one another without judgment or fault or blame.

He wouldn't compromise what they had for anything in the whole world.

Except…

It was too risky. He was no risk-taker. He weighed the odds and logically came to diplomatic solutions. He valued input and advice from those much wiser than he. He took his time to evaluate and plan and strategize. He was Aburame after all, son of Shibi, heir to the noble Aburame clan, one of the great clans that founded their beloved city. His reputation and the reputation of his entire clan preceded him. They were cold and calculating, never ruled by emotion or feelings.

And yet, as she pulled up the edge of the blanket and nuzzled closer to his chest, he couldn't help but go with his gut instinct and throw reason, logic and all of the fundamental learning lessons of common sense right out the window.

This was a girl he had willfully tried to maim on more than one occasion. Actually it was quite often. Most encounters with Tenten usually ended in bloodshed of one kind or another. He had become an instrumental part of her ridiculous training regiments over the years. Her threat to stab in the eye with a kunai one day actually came to fruition the very next day in the form of straddling him after a swift pin when she flipped him on his back. Lucky for him, his goggles had only cracked, but the sheer force behind her action would have been enough for a killing blow had he not had the sense to wear his industrial-strength gear that morning. Had her intention to drive the kunai into his ocular foramen, he would have surely died. Since her intent was to pry the glass from the frame of the glass, he lived. The girl meant serious business and she didn't make idle threats. Vengeance, blood, Shino's head on a pike…Shino knew he wouldn't be able to hold back against her if he continued to fight her anymore. He wanted to help her be stronger, to make sure her next fight on the battle field wouldn't be her last. He'd unleash all of his tricks on her if that forced her to grow as a shinobi. She was going to earn her bragging rights if she beat him sparring, because there was no holding back anymore.

He couldn't hold back now either.

Then he remembered how happy she was to have been chosen by him for the mission and how she went on and on about how privileged it was to have been selected from so many other candidates. He would compromise all of that good standing now if he attempted any kind of move on her. Not to mention how unprofessional it would be. That and she would literally kill him if she didn't feel the same way.

But if she did…

"I have a confession to make." Shino wasn't going to risk _not_ knowing. It was do or die time, quite literally. "I am an incredibly petty person."

"I knew that," Tenten piped up quickly as she scoffed and tugged the corners of her blanket closer to her chest. "You are still mad about the time l broke one of your precious pair of goggles. I had warned you the day before that I was going to stab you in the eye with my dullest kunai. That also makes you 'negligent'. You can add that to your list of faults right under 'petty'."

Normally he would rise and take the bait. "I will add it under 'excruciatingly immature' and 'socially awkward'."

"Don't forget 'self deprecating', and 'disturbingly and suddenly candid' to that list. Is there a preface to this confession that I missed? Or did you have a sip of my tea and need to do some soul searching before meeting your maker?"

"I didn't poison your tea, nor am I actively trying to kill you." He didn't think.

"But accidently letting me die of hypothermia is acceptable. As long as you aren't the direct culprit, just the catalyst to bring about my demise."

"I see no reason why you should die of hypothermia."

"Tell that to my hands. I can't seem to get them warm. My nailbeds are still purple." The color had gone out of her lips again. Shino tried not to get worked up over it.

Shino turned her to face him and carefully gathered her small, cold hands in his own. He rubbed them gently while he tried to proceed with his confession, which had gone terrible awry. Her damned proximity was clouding his brain and making this harder than it needed to be.

Shino frowned.

"You are going to be the death of me," he said slowly and deliberately, as if that were part of what he was trying to spit out.

"Promises, promises," she whispered back as her eyes locked on to where his goggles lay, daring him to make his move.

He slowly reached to her face with his hand, cupping her chin as he oh so carefully brushed his calloused thumb across the soft pale edges of her upper lip. She didn't move from her spot of trying to bore a hole in his goggles, still letting her brown eyes dance in the firelight, cloying at every ounce of self-control he possessed.

"I believe I need to shift my energy into a more productive manner. I also fear that I have already done irreparable damage on my account. I did this willingly and intentionally and while I seek forgiveness, I know that reparation to be impossible. I know that irrevocable damage cannot be mitigated with a few mellifluous words, but l am going to focus every intention to correct this egregious error and misjudgment on my part…" Shino's rant was interrupted with her slender, cool finger on his lips.

"Not impossible." There was that fey mischief in her eyes. "But you can start by getting me warm." She got up and got on top of his bedroll.

Her bedroll was lost in the avalanche with all of her other things. She hadn't come back with one either. Shino was going to ask if that was done on purpose…along with the lack of clothes…but decided that he would ask later. Right now, he had a kunoichi that needed to be warmed up.


End file.
